This invention relates generally to the use of body fluid-soluble nuclear matrix proteins as cellular markers. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of monitoring the degree of cell death in a tissue by monitoring the level of interior nuclear matrix proteins and/or fragments thereof released from cells in a body fluid-soluble form.
Cell death occurs as a function of healthy tissue homeostasis, as well as a result of disease or injury to the tissue. Detectable changes in the rate of cell death in a tissue therefore can provide an indication of the tissue's status. In normal growing tissue, for example, changes in the rate of cell death can indicate a new developmental stage. Alternatively, a sudden detected change in cell death in adult tissue can signal an injury to the tissue and also provide information on the type of injury. Previously, clinical assessment of tissue viability has required presentation of clinical symptoms and a visual inspection of the tissue itself, requiring observation of the morphology of cells in a tissue sample, and/or an indirect estimation of cell death by measuring changes in tissue/organ size. While the state of the art of morphological observation has advanced significantly, reliance on histological observation of an abnormality requires that the abnormal cells comprise part of the tissue sample tested. Early stages of a malignancy therefore can be particularly difficult to detect by this method. Biochemical assessments of cell or tissue viability also generally have been difficult to interpret, primarily because in many instances cell death occurs in individual cells which are intimately intermixed with viable cells in a sample.
There exists a need for reliable means of monitoring the degree of cell death in a tissue which does not rely on histology or tissue biopsy. A particularly useful method would be one wherein the rate of cell death could be monitored in a body fluid assay. It is anticipated that the ability to accurately monitor tissue-specific cell death in a fluid assay would have significant impact on the study of tissue development and cell kinetics, as well as on many different clinical applications. For example, the method may be used to monitor the progress of a disease or injury associated with cell death, as well as to monitor the efficacy of a therapy for an affected tissue. The method also may be used to monitor the effect of the therapy on unaffected, normal tissue. In addition, the method may be used to evaluate a compound's cytotoxicity.
Recently, methods have been disclosed for extracting and isolating the normally highly insoluble interior nuclear matrix proteins from cells. Interior nuclear matrix proteins are proteins from within the boundaries of the nuclear matrix, termed "interior" nuclear matrix proteins, which are substantially free of chromatin proteins, and intermediate filaments, collectively termed "exterior" nuclear matrix proteins (see Penman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,268, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference). In the method, the cell nucleus is isolated, the cytoskeleton proteins and chromatin are removed, the "nuclear matrix" is isolated, and the interior and exterior components of the nuclear matrix are separated. The nuclear matrix-intermediate filament complex comprises a specific fraction of cell protein constituting less than five percent of the total protein and six percent of the total DNA of the cell. The interior nuclear matrix comprises about one percent or less of the total cellular protein. It contains many proteins that differ according to cell type, and is highly enriched with type-specific antigens including cell-type and transformation-specific proteins that had not been detected using prior art procedures. It also contains the lamina and nuclear pore complex proteins. The separation method makes use of the unique properties of the nuclear matrix to achieve separation from substantially all other cell constituents. The method is simple, rapid, reproducible, achieves a high degree of purity, and is applicable to essentially all types of cells.
The method of Penman et al. has enabled the art to identify and isolate cell type-specific and transformation-specific interior nuclear matrix proteins of sufficient purity to allow antibodies to be made. These antibodies then can be used to detect cell type-specific interior nuclear matrix proteins in a sample, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,877 issued Dec. 28, 1993, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. As used therein and here, the term "cell-type" is understood to refer to cells of various different tissues such as neural, glial, muscle, liver, mesenchymal, and different types of epithelia and endothelia, as well as malignant cell forms and cells having an altered genomic expression profile caused by viral infection or other factors.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for monitoring the degree of cell death in a body fluid assay by monitoring the level of body fluid-soluble interior nuclear matrix proteins in a fluid. Another object of the invention is to provide a method for quantifying the body fluid-soluble interior nuclear matrix proteins released from cells and present in a cell compatible fluid. Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for evaluating a therapy, or the progress of a disease associated with cell death by monitoring the degree of cell death in an affected tissue. Another object of the invention is to provide a method for assessing the toxicity of compounds by assessing their ability to induce cell death. Still another object of the invention is to provide a method for inducing the release of body fluid-soluble nuclear matrix proteins from eucaryotic cells. These and other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the description and claims which follow.